a new york city winner would pay the highest taxes, but lucky winners in eight states may no state taxes on winnings at all. until today the biggest powerball on record was $365 million won by eight nebraska meat packers in 2006. >> we process hams and corn beef? they went from corn beef to caviar overnight and so could you. but jeremy elson, a senior researcher from microsoft says it's okay to dream, but don't quit your day job just yet. >> mathematically it's not a good bet to buy a lottery ticket, even though the jackpot is very large. >> reporter: odds of winning, 1 in 175 million. >> so if you imagine a line of 175 million pennies stretching from l.a. to chicago and just a single one of them has an "x" on it, you have the same chance of winning a lottery as taking a road trip, stopping alongside the road in a random place, flipping over a single penny and finding that one with an "x." >> reporter: still, you can't blame people for getting mesmerized by the power of the powerball frenzy. >> i would be thinking it's freaking incredible to have that much money. >> reporter: all right.